Appreciating what I’m learning from reading Cynthia Bourgeault and Richard Rohr.
richard rohr
All heart
The only response: OK.
Language is only metaphor
“Quantum entanglement gives credence to the meaning of love and the meaning of hate.”
Reading and breezes and everything nice
Niece Meaghan tagged me in a Facebook challenge. Was tasked with listing 10 books that have stayed with me through the years. Here’s my list. Care to share some that’d be on your list?
Why I Wake Early – Mary Oliver (I say poetry counts)
Daddy Longlegs – Jean Webster
A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Stone Diaries – Carol Shields
The Naked Now – Richard Rohr
Stuart Little – E.B. White
Surprised by Joy – C.S. Lewis
The View from Castle Rock – Alice Munro
I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity – Izzeldin Abuelaish
Of happiness
Here’s what I like: those really soft breezes that wake me up early because my window is open; Havarti cheese on rye, grilled with tomatoes and onions; these days, pretty much any book by Richard Rohr; Mary Oliver’s poetry; diving into cold water; the sound of geese flying south; knowing my daughter is happy.
Good books
Read Richard Rohr’s “Falling Upward” last weekend. Wisdom, grace, humility gift each page.
Love his books
Richard Rohr’s Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality is full of marvelous insights, in my opinion.
For example: “Slowly I have learned that it is holding things unreconciled that teaches us — leaving them partly unreconciled and without perfect closure or explanation.”
And, “… the gathering of contraries is, in fact, … the school of love.”
And “… we bear the ambiguity, the inconsistencies and the brokenness of all things, instead of insisting on dividing reality into the good guys and the bad guys. It is our ultimate act of solidarity with humanity.”
My understanding is limited, but I think I have gotten at least this far, with hands and heart wide open to receive: Certainty is not only impossible but undesirable. Life is chaotic, messy, imperfect, paradoxical.
For that reason, hope is a very good thing.
A gift.
Oatis Communications 